Alaska Jibes State OT Law with Fed Law

HR BLR.com reported that the new law,  HB 182 , contains a provision that clarifies that the state’s definition of an executive, administrative, or professional job is the same as under federal overtime-exemption rules.

To be exempt from overtime rules under the Alaska law, individuals employed in a bona fide executive, administrative, or professional capacity must be compensated at a rate of at least two times the state minimum wage for 40 hours of employment each week.

“These changes to the Wage and Hour Act eliminate ambiguities, align Alaska more closely with other states, and reduce the number of unnecessary lawsuits, while protecting workers rights to receive overtime,” said state Representative Norman Rokeberg, sponsor of the legislation, in a statement.

The Alaska law is effective November 7, 2005.

The final federal regulations, the first revision to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) since 1949, protect the overtime rights of blue-collar workers, union workers, nurses, veterans, firefighters, policemen and similar public safety workers, and respond to concerns raised with earlier proposed regulations during the comment period by clarifying that the overtime rights of these workers are not affected under the final rule (see  DoL Releases FLSA Changes ).